From the transcript of American Morning, CNN, 17 May 2010:
CAROL COSTELLO: Sarah Palin is back in the spotlight taking the stage in Phoenix this weekend with Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer (R). Both women have a message for the man in the White House. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PALIN: It’s time for Americans across this great country to stand up and say, we’re all Arizonans now and in clear unity we say, Mr. President, do your job. Secure our border.
BREWER: Our border is being erased. And the president apparently considers it a wonderful opportunity to divide people along racial lines for his personal, political convenience. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Joining me to talk about this and more, Katrina Vanden Huevel, editor and publisher of “The Nation” along with Susan Molinari, former Republican congresswoman from New York. … Sarah Palin {with the governor} has managed to tie the Obama administration to the cause for this Arizona law. How might that affect the voters going to the polls in the primaries on Tuesday, in the midterm election?
HEUVEL: … the Republican party {is} for the most part, male, pale and stale. And they’re going to become more so because they’re going to alienate Latino voters as we have seen over the last 2 decades whenever the Republican party draws out these mean-spirited plans like this Arizona law … in the long term it’s going to marginalize an already marginalized Republican party … and this plan doesn’t even deal with legitimate security concerns about immigration. It really is more about fear, misinformation. There is a legitimate concern. But you need real action and not one that President Obama has says wisely, the guts, the communication between police and communities and the possibilities of a more humane path.
COSTELLO: You mentioned the politics of fear, but Susan, come on, this seems to be working because some of the most conservative Republican candidates are doing quite well in the primaries, aren’t they?
MOLINARI: I would like to see levels of legal immigration get higher and higher in the United States. I think legal immigrants are a gift to this country and however, two thirds of the American people surveyed say that they support this bill. And I think underlying all this from a political standpoint is the exasperation that the American people feel, that the federal government hasn’t provided answers, hasn’t provided solutions, hasn’t built a fence or hasn’t had this conversation that the American people are telling the U.S. government they want to have.
This is just one more example of the American government failing to listen to the American people. And also, if you look at this YouTube debate, I think, you know, there is — people are reacting to the fact that the attorney general right after this law was signed by the governor came out and said we may challenge this law. And then in a hearing last week, admitted he hadn’t even read a ten-page law.
So I think there is an attitude in this presidency that the views and concerns of the American people aren’t going to motivate action by this White House. And I think that’s what you’re starting to see, a level of frustration.
COSTELLO: With incumbents and in talking about the Hispanic vote, you mentioned the polls and most Americans are for this measure in Arizona. But Latinos probably feel differently. Remember back in the day, George P. Bush, President Bush’s nephew trying to like drum up support? He was very successful, wasn’t he? All of that now seemingly gone out the window. Is that something that Republicans should be concerned about?
MOLINARI: Listen, George Bush 43, put together and introduced an immigration bill that Katrina just basically described. So I think the Republican Party really has, was sort of out on point in a lot of these areas. But it is clear that times have changed, that the debate has changed, that the level of frustration of the American people by the inaction of the federal government has risen to this point.
Does the Republican Party have to be careful with regard to the Hispanic vote, which is going to be very important in the next presidential election? Absolutely, they do. And I think we have to make sure that we make a very clear and concise argument about the difference between legal immigration and illegal immigration.
Posts on the FM website about the Tea Party Movement
- Are the new “tea party” protests a grass roots rebellion or agitprop?, 1 March 2009
- Our ruling elites scamper and play while our world burns, 11 March 2009
- The weak link in America’s political regime, 16 September 2009
- More examples of Americans waking up – should we rejoice?, 10 October 2009
- Does the Tea Party movement remind you of the movie “Meet John Doe”?, 27 January 2010
- Listen to the crowds cheering Sarah Palin, hear the hammerblows of another nail in the Constitution’s coffin, 8 February 2010
- The Tea Party movement develops a platform. It’s the Underpants Gnomes Business Plan!, 8 March 2010
- About the Tea Party Movement: who they are and what they believe, 19 March 2010
- The Tea Party Movement disproves my recommendation for the path to reforming America, 20 April 2010
- At last we see a Tea Party political platform, 13 May 2010
Afterword
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